Away victory is at Root of Accrington Stanley's thoughts
10:30am Saturday 18th August 2012 in Sport
By Chris Flanagan, Sports reporter
ACCRINGTON Stanley assistant manager Leam Richardson says the Reds will go on the offensive at Southend United today – as they bid to start winning away from home on a regular basis this season.
Stanley start their League Two campaign at Roots Hall this weekend having had an extraordinary away record in the past two seasons – losing 15, winning only six but drawing an incredible 25 games.
The Reds were beaten 1-0 at League One Carlisle in the first round of the Capital One Cup last weekend but Richardson only has thoughts of victory today.
Southend finished fourth last season but were beaten 4-0 by Peterborough in midweek.
“Southend is a tough game, a tough start for anybody,” Richardson said.
“But the gaffer was at Peterborough-Southend on Tuesday night and we’ll set up to win the game.
“I think people think we use it flippantly, but we do set up to win every game.”
The Reds have made a number of additions in recent weeks but are still attempting to bring in a goalkeeper to provide competition for Ian Dunbavin.
“All summer it’s not been through the lack of trying, we’ve spoken to a number of goalkeepers and missed out on a couple by a whisker,” Richardson said.
“But we’re not just looking to fill a place, we’re looking to get it right, nobody will come in unless it’s the right decision, we’re not going to bring anyone in just for the sake of it.
“Ian Dunbavin finished the season really well and has been very good pre-season so he’ll compete with anybody with a place.
“But we are actively looking.”
Manager Paul Cook admitted this summer that his arrival in February allowed him to settle in at a time when the pressure was off, with relegation already far from a threat.
Cook swiftly moved his thoughts to the long term and much of Stanley’s planning centred around today’s first league game.
“Obviously when we came in we were still knocking about the play-off positions, and we had a different style of play and were asking the lads to do a few different things,” Richardson said.
“A lot of things were out of our control, we had more than a handful of injuries but I suppose you could say that once that was out of the way the focus was the start of this season.
“We’ve had a big change around and we have a lot of eager players ready to go.”
